Share this article

Germany's military transport planes are causing embarrassment for yet another Bundeswehr mission. The military's much-heralded delivery to help Ebola-stricken countries in western Africa has stalled in Gran Canaria.

The poor state of the Bundeswehr’s Transall planes led to delays last week to Germany's delivery of arms and soldiers to northern Iraq. Two of the 50-year-old planes broke down.

And on Monday it emerged that a flight delivering medicine and field tents to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has been stuck in Gran Canaria since Friday.

The Transall C-160 plane has a defect and technicians and a replacement plane are being flown to the Spanish island.

The flight was meant to land in Senegal on Friday, carrying ten tonnes of supplies and creating an air route for aid between Germany and western Africa.

Defence blog “Augen geradeaus” (Eyes front) broke the news of the latest embarrassment for military chiefs and defence minister Ursula von der Leyen. The problem was confirmed by a Bundeswehr spokesman.

Germany was supposed to send two Transall machines to Africa to deliver the aid.

German-French made Transalls were first developed in the 1960s and are known as the "alte Dame" (The old lady).

The country's military is supposed to replace its Transalls with Airbus A400 transport planes between 2014 and 2019, but the project has faced severe delays.

Member comments

From our sponsors

Iceland may have a population of just over 330,000 people (all with equally unpronounceable names) but that doesn't stop it churning out a stream of globally-renowned people. Take our quiz to discover your Icelandic spirit animal.